Nie Xiaoge is a young painter burdened with debt, living in a tiny studio in Shihezi, Xinjiang. One winter night, he jolts awake from a dream and discovers an egg tempera painting on his easel that he has no memory of creating. To solve the mystery, he finds the travel journal he bought at a secondhand bookstore in Qiemo nine years ago. A monk from Jiuhua Mountain tells him, "This is wisdom from a past life. To understand the dream, you must go north, to the place guarded by the changing star."
With help from his friends, Nie Xiaoge ventures into the primeval Poplar Forest deep in Kalamaili. Above the trees, dead for who knows how many years, he sees for the first time the star whose changing colors only he can perceive.
After returning, he spends six months working on his art, then decides to go back to Kalamaili.
This time, he has only a battered bicycle and a backpack weighing nearly thirty kilograms...
